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New Zealand students looking for the best animation school need look no further than Media Design School, where course leader James Cunningham has secured a Siggraph Jury Award - New Zealand's first - for his short film, Poppy.

Poppy tells the true story of two New Zealand soldiers in France's western front during World War One.  Finding a baby trapped under its dead parents, they struggle with the decision of whether to save it. Written by the great-grandson of one of the soldiers, the Siggraph jury praises the short, saying "An innovation combination of motion capture with exquisite facial animation."

Having been selected from 750 submissions from 49 countries, Cunningham is understandably delighted at the award.

“I have attended SIGGRAPH about four times since 1998.  To have something selected to screen there is a dream of mine and to win an award is phenomenal.  The Jury’s acknowledgement of the hand key frame facial animation is a testament to the great actors we had to work with.  Congratulations and thanks to Matt Sunderland, Paul Glover, Camille Keenan and Marek Sumich; and also to Weta Digital's incredible motion capture team. The body movements they recorded were superb and I was so lucky to be able to work with them on Poppy.”

Since the award Cunningham has been asked to give a lecture at Siggraph, and this week will be doing just that, presenting the Poppy making-of story.

“I am delighted and a bit intimidated to be invited to speak at Siggraph. I don't consider myself an especially technical cgi artist - and this is the ultimate technical conference - but I hope to not embarrass myself! I think I will just talk about making the story work and how we arrived at a unique visual style.”

Media Design School congratulate James on such an outstanding achievement.